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George W. Bush believes testing is a good way to help parents and politicians know how students and schools are performing. In January 2002, President Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind" Act. The law requires schools to measure students' progress in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 and during high school. The law also gives schools new flexibility in deciding how to spend government money. Here are some of Bush's other priorities:
- Make sure students in poor schools have the option of getting extra help, tutoring, or a chance to transfer to a better school.
- Require states to provide yearly reports about how well area schools are doing at educating kids.
- Increase federal money for programs to help kids learn to read at an early age.
John Kerry wants to increase the number of high school graduates by 1 million over the next five years. (Currently, nearly one third of high school students do not graduate.) Kerry has presented a plan for keeping a closer watch on dropout rates and taking new steps to make sure kids stay in school. Here are a few of Kerry's other proposals:
- Reduce taxes for teachers and principals willing to work in schools that need the most extra help. (Taxes are the money the government collects from people to pay for projects and plans including schools, road improvements, and the military.)
- Create a special pool of money to help hire teachers and reduce class sizes.
- Encourage college students to participate in "mentoring," or acting as a big brother or sister, to middle school students. Kerry wants 100,000 more college students to help prepare middle school students for high school.
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